THE WONDERS OF LIFE 



matter (prothyl) been shown. The constant features of 

 chemical combinations which have been estabUshed by 

 the analysis and synthesis of the elements, and especial- 

 ly the law of simple and multiple proportions discovered 

 in 1808, led to the empirical determination of the atomic 

 weight of the elements and to the chemical theory of the 

 atom. The acceptance of these atoms (as space-filling 

 separate particles of matter — ^however we may regard 

 them in other respects) is an indispensable hypothesis in 

 chemistry, like the hypothesis of the molecule in physics. 

 Modern dynamism (or energism) is wrong when it thinks 

 it can dispense with these hypotheses and replace the 

 atoms by the notion of immaterial non - spatial points 

 of force. However, in both the dynamic and the mate- 

 rial school monism is retained in every department of 

 chemistry. 



Modern science considers the ultimate aim of all re- 

 search to be the exact determination of phenomena in 

 measure and number, or the reduction of all general 

 knowledge to mathematically formulated laws. As the 

 great Laplace established his system mathematically, it 

 has lately been claimed that a comprehensive (ideal) 

 Laplace-mind could embrace the whole past, present, 

 and future of the universe in a single gigantic mathe- 

 matical formula. Kant has expressed this exaggerated 

 estimate of mathematics in the phrase: "Every science 

 is only true science in proportion as it is amenable to 

 mathematical treatment"; and to this he has added the 

 second error that the mathematical axioms (being neces- 

 sary and universal truths) belong to the a priori con- 

 stitution of the mind, and are independent of experience 

 (a posteriori). However, John Stuart Mill and others 

 have shown that the fundamental ideas of mathematics 

 are acquired originally, like those of any other science, 

 by abstraction from experience; and the modern phy- 

 togeny of the mind has confirmed this empirical view. 



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